Mountain Bike Rider — March 2018

106 mbrMARCH 2018

image

Our favourite

people choose their

favourite photos

A

seditorofthenowdefunct

MBimagazine,theofferofa

Cannondale Fulcrum DH bike

for a studio photograph was

nevergoingtobejusta‘static’

pic.CliveGoslingwasworkingfor

Cannondale at the time and arranged

toloanusthebikeforadayinthestudio

toshoottheradicalsuspensionand

drive system.

However,just before we took delivery

of the bike, our in-house studio had an

emergency shoot for a woodworking

magazine that took priority over our

booking (nudge, nudge). So I told Clive

wewouldneedtoholdontoitforan

extraday,meaningwewouldhavethe

bike in our possession for just under

36 hours.

Cliveagreed,buthewasclearon

twothings:“ABSOLUTELYnoridingthis

bike. And ABSOLUTELY no technical

photos showing how the drive and

suspensionsystem works!”

Ahem...

Ofcourse,whateveryonewanted

to know was how it worked and how

it rode. So, I had our photographer,

Paul Bryant, waiting in the car with

the engine running, and soon as Clive

haddroppedoffthebike,wedrove

straight to the tunnel and caned it to

the South of France. Up early next

morningontheMontagneSaintVictoire

around 12 hours after picking the bike

upinafrostybutbeautifulspotfor

some epic photos.

We floored it back, got it into

the studio, shot some time-lapse

photography of the suspension

extendingwithareallyslowrebound

setting, and managed to hand it back to

Cliveinpristinecondition(savefroma

little less rubber on the tyres).

We had many mad dashes to the

SouthofFranceatMBi,butthiswasthe

one to define them all. Sorry Clive! But, I

guess you knew we would?

After editing
amotorcycle
magazine, then
Mountain Biker
Internationalmag,
Chris Porter created
Mojo suspension in
the early Noughties,
distributing Fox in
theUKandbuilding
a service centre
in South Wales.
Lately he’s been
developing the
Geometron concept
with Nicolai.

AS CHOSEN BY...

SUSPENSION GURU

CHRIS PORTER

Where: Aix-en-

Provence, France

Who: Chris Porter

When: February 1999

Photo: Paul Bryant

Our photographer, Paul Bryant, waited

inthecarwiththeenginerunning—we

drove straight to the South of France